'Dark Knight Rises', 'Amazing Spider-Man' and 'Life of Pi' are among the other titles that make it to the top 10 contenders of Visual Effects award for the 85th Annual Academy Awards.

The Oscar race is getting even more exciting as it ticks closer to the Academy Awards 2013 nominations announcement on January 10. On Thursday, November 29, the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences revealed that the Visual Effects category had narrowed its contenders to just ten movies.

Among those in the short list are this year's biggest superhero movies, Joss Whedon's "The Avengers" and Christopher Nolan's "The Dark Knight Rises". The two rivals are also set to compete with yet another comic book movie "The Amazing Spider-Man", which also scored massive box office result this summer.

Also racing in the category is recently-released James Bond flick, "Skyfall", which has been dubbed the best 007 movie so far by many critics. Peter Jackson's "The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey" is also in contention though the film hasn't been released in the U.S. cinemas.

The big surprise comes from "John Carter", which makes it to the list despite the fact that the movie memorably suffered a big flop on box office earlier this year. The other contenders are Ang Lee's first 3D work "Life of Pi", Ridley Scott's space thriller "Prometheus", the Wachowskis' sci-fier "Cloud Atlas", and Rupert Sanders' twisted fairytale "Snow White and the Huntsman".

Members of the Visual Effects Branch will be invited to watch 10-minute excerpts from each of the shortlisted movies on Thursday, January 3, a week before the nominations announcement takes place. After the screenings, the members will vote to nominate five titles for the final Oscar consideration.

As mentioned above, the Oscar 2013 nominees will be announced live on Thursday, January 10 at 5:30 A.M. PT in Samuel Goldwyn Theater. The winners will be revealed during the Academy Awards annual ceremony on Sunday, February 24 at the Dolby Theater in Hollywood & Highland Center. It will be broadcast live in more than 225 countries by the ABC Television Network.